The 2016 Regional Murrow Awards, honoring the best in electronic journalism, were announced by The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) today.
KUSA won seven Murrow Awards, including overall excellence, sports, hard news and feature reporting and writing.

That was a good haul for Denver’s 9News but it wasn’t tops in the regionals: in the large market television category, KING-TV in Seattle led with nine Murrows this year.

In the regional competition, KDVR won for its 9 p.m. newscast. KCNC won for breaking news coverage of the “Planned Parenthood Shooting” and the news documentary regarding the Henthorn case. KMGH’s reports on “Children Abused: Deaths Ignored” won the news series category.

KOA won for overall excellence in the radio category. Colorado Public Radio won for continuing coverage and investigative reporting.

In the small market competition KUNC won for hard news reporting. KKTV in Colorado Springs won for its 10 p.m. newscast.

In addition to Colorado, the region includes Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. A complete list of the 2016 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards winners can be found at rtdna.org.

In the wake of the abrupt departure of anchor Eric Kahnert from KMGH-Channel 7 comes word of a few more departing staffers:

Jon Stone, executive producer of news, is leaving to go to the University of Denver on the marketing side; Jaime Berg, news producer, is leaving to join KUSA-Channel 9.

Another earlier departure was Kim Nguyen, a valued staffer who helped launch the station’s website (and who won a regional Murrow Award for thedenverchannel.com. She jumped without a soft landing spot.

Lindsay Watts, a reporter for KMGH, left earlier this month and is back in Washington, D.C., as a reporter for the Fox affiliate.

The Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas showdown in the 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings served as an education on sexual harassment for the nation. Looking back, it’s amazing to see the news clips in which mostly male anchors and reporters attempt to explain the charges to the TV audience; it’s intriguing to hear dialog from those playing Senators and Congressmen who were clueless about women’s rights and what might be offensive to female employees.

At a time when President Obama’s SCOTUS nomination is being politicized, the drama “Confirmation,” Saturday at 9-11 p.m. on HBO, is ripe for controversy.

Ironically, we hear more from Thomas (portrayed by Wendell Pierce) in HBO’s “Confirmation” than we’ve heard from the real Thomas in his 25 years on the Supreme Court. (You’ll recall he was narrowly confirmed, by a 52-48 vote.)

SHARK TANK – “Episode 723” – Two high school freshmen from Denver, Colorado, pitch a tasty way to improve the ice cream cone; FRIDAY, APRIL 22 (9:00-10:01 p.m. EDT) on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Michael Desmond)OLIVER GREENWALD, SAM NASSIF (THE DRIP DROP)

Denver teens Oliver Greenwald and Sam Nassif, pals from childhood, will be on ABC’s “Shark Tank” on April 22 (at 8 p.m. on KMGH-Channel 7) — reportedly the youngest entrepreneurs to appear on the show.

The idea began when they were 10, attending Graland Country Day school. They entered the Charles C. Gates Invention and Innovation Competition as fifth graders.

“We were in search of an everyday problem in need of a solution. The whole thing started when we saw a little girl at Bonnie Brae Ice Cream,” Greenwald explained. She was a drippy dairy mess, crying while her mom tried to clean her up. The guys seized on an idea.

With the help of teachers and coaches, and through the efforts of local patent attorney Ellen Reilly over three years, the kids secured a U.S. patent on their creation, The Drip Drop.

In the episode, the boys visit Bonnie Brae ice cream and play tennis at the Jewish Community Center as the camera follows them around town. Even their grandmas have cameos, enjoying ice cream.

Entrepreneurship runs in the family, they note: Oliver’s dad (Brad) teaches entrepreneurship at D.U.’s Daniels College of Business, his mom (Rachel) has her own matchmaking/dating business, Sam’s dad (Jon) started a successful downtown Denver restaurant company (Green Fine Salad), and his mom (Laurie) runs her own photography travel company (Cousins Photo Tours).

“We’re still trying to license the Drip Drop with cone manufacturers,” Greenwald said. “This experience makes me want to be a businessman.”

“Heart of the World,” a gorgeous appreciation of Colorado’s national parks by the masterful filmmakers at Great Divide Pictures, is airing on both Colorado Public TV (KBDI-Channel 12) and Rocky Mountain PBS (KRMA-Channel 6 in Denver) this week.

(On Wednesday, three episodes air back-to-back at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. on CPT12; on Thursday, one episode airs at 8 p.m. and on Friday in the wee hours at 2 a.m. on RMPBS.)

The five National Parks surveyed are Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Sand Dunes and Colorado National Monument. Each episode covers geology, how water shaped the landscapes, and human and natural history with wildlife shots including bears, bighorn sheep, moose and elk.

The project is narrated by country music artist Kathy Mattea. The musical soundtrack is composed by Peter Kater, an 11-time Grammy nominee.

The aerial views are spectacular. “Our goal has been to capture Colorado as its never been seen before,” said Chris Wheeler of Great Divide.

The origins of violent jihadism can be traced to Greeley, of all places. That’s according to a new CNN documentary by Fareed Zakaria.

“Why They Hate Us,” a one-hour special airing April 25, locally at 8 p.m., is Zakaria’s effort to answer the question first posed after 9/11. He returns to the topic 15 years later, in the wake of terrorist attacks in Boston, Brussels, Beirut, Paris, Mumbai, Ft. Hood, and San Bernardino.

According to the documentary, the global movement based on anti-Western hatred traces to Greeley in 1949 and a church dance where “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” happened to be playing. Sayyid Qutb, a puritanical, conservative Muslim was so horrified by what he saw there (males and females touching, dancing), that he returned to Egypt to advocate a return to Sharia law by Arab nations, the rejection of modernization and democracy – and violent retaliation against America and the West for ‘corrupting’ the Arab World.

Estrella TV, the third-ranked Spanish language TV network behind Univision and Telemundo, says cable giant Comcast is discriminating against the network in order to benefit its own Spanish language networks Telemundo and NBC Universo. Denver, Houston and Salt Lake City are the key markets where Estrella has been affected.

Estrella’s owner, Liberman Broadcasting, on April 8 filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Comcast charging violations of the FCC’s Program Carriage regulations, as well as of the merger conditions imposed on Comcast when it acquired NBCUniversal.

“In Denver we were the No. 2 Spanish language network in the market. When Comcast took us off the air, our ratings have essentially evaporated and their networks have done very well.” (Telemundo Denver has new offices and studios within the Comcast Media Center.)

In Denver, Estrella is available on DISH and DirecTV but not on Comcast. Its most popular programs include entertainment fare “Tengo Talenta Mucho Talenta” and “Rica Famosa Latina.”

Liberman Broadcasting is the largest minority-owned Hispanic broadcast company in the U.S., and the family-owned parent company of Estrella.

The case seeks to present “clear and compelling evidence that Comcast has discriminated against Estrella TV to benefit its own properties,” and, further, it claims Comcast is asking Estrella to relinquish digital rights of its content as a condition for carriage.

“They’ve made demands nobody else has and they’ve made no offers to us (for compensation),” said Liberman. “In the case of Time Warner there was give and take.” In the case of Comcast there was none, he said.

Updated April 8, 2016 at 12:15 p.m.: Due to a reporting error, the quotes above were wrongly attributed to Liberman Broadcasting’s counsel. The speaker on the teleconference was in fact Lenard Liberman, co-founder of the network.

At a staff meeting April 5, management said those whose jobs were cut — all in production roles and representing the bulk of the production department — were invited to apply for the new positions.

John Ferrugia, who recently joined the team at Rocky Mountain PBS, on Feb. 23, 2016. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

The restructuring comes in the wake of the hiring of John Ferrugia by RMPBS in February, a high-profile hire which RMPBS President and CEO Doug Price confirmed is intended to signal the network’s new dedication to investigative journalism.

“Since I’ve been here,” Price said, “we’ve gradually altered the emphasis of our production. We’re much more journalistically oriented. Doing fewer one-offs, more series. The goal was to be more adept at swiftly executing on the journalism that we do. We have to make it compelling television. Make it more efficient and quicker.”

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.